


This Love Came Back to Me

by helasgayrights



Category: Grey's Anatomy, Private Practice
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Fix-It, Fluff, Light Angst, Post-Divorce
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-09
Updated: 2020-11-09
Packaged: 2021-03-08 17:14:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,858
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27470287
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/helasgayrights/pseuds/helasgayrights
Summary: “It’s always been you,” is what he greets her with when she finds him on her doorstep.It’s going to be hard, and she’s not even sure if it’s going to be worth it, but all that matters is that they’re Addison-and-Derek once again.[ in which Derek chases Addison to LA after "Piece of My Heart". Set between season 1 and 2 of Private Practice ]
Relationships: Addison Montgomery/Derek Shepherd
Comments: 4
Kudos: 27





	This Love Came Back to Me

**Author's Note:**

> I had a totally different fic planned and half-written when the idea of Derek in LA and joining the practice would not leave me alone, and so here we are. Enjoy!
> 
> Title is from "This Love" by Taylor Swift.

“It’s always been you,” is what he greets her with when she finds him on her doorstep. 

It’s going to be hard, and she’s not even sure if it’s going to be worth it, but all that matters is that they’re Addison-and-Derek once again.

-

“I still love you,” he swears. “I always have,” he claims. “And I always will,” he promises.

She doesn’t quite believe him but Addison hadn’t moved on from their relationship either, and the part of her that believes in romantic movies and fairytales and happy endings convinces her that this is a sign. Maybe this meant that signing the divorce papers wasn’t the end for them yet. So she takes him back, and spends the rest of the weekend in bliss. They talk, walk on the beach, and drink enough wine that Addison can almost convince herself the past few years have been a dream. Her blaring alarm the next morning shakes her back to reality.

-

Mondays are bad. Scratch that, Mondays are horrible. She hates Mondays, but she hates this Monday even more for taking her away from the little bubble they created over the past twenty four hours and shoving her back into the real world. Addison begrudgingly gets out of bed to get ready for work, leaving a naked Derek still sleeping soundly in her bed. 

“Hey, Addison.” Violet greets her as she enters the conference room for the morning meeting. “You look… different. Did you do something with your hair?”

“My hair?” Addison asks self-consciously, running a hand through her long red hair. For a moment she worries she’s still got sex hair before she catches her reflection in the glass and realizes she looks perfectly normal. 

“You uh, you look good.” Pete awkwardly compliments her as he takes a seat. Cooper mutters a hesitant “yeah” in agreement. Addison simply nods, taking a seat in her own spot. Naomi enters the room, closely followed by Sam, and takes her spot at the head of the conference table. Naomi heads the meeting, discussing the patients that would be coming in that day as well as conferring with everyone on potential consults. Just the regular business. Naomi dismisses them, Addison quickly hurrying after her to get her attention.

“Hey, uh, Nai, I was wondering if we had room in the practice for another doctor?” Addison asks quietly. Naomi abruptly stops, whirling around to face her best friend. The other doctors also stop, looking at them in curiosity.

“Another doctor?” Naomi asks in surprise. “Where’d you find another doctor? Did you meet someone?”

“Uhm.” Addison hesitates, glancing at Sam, Pete, Violet, and Cooper who were looking at them, intrigued. “It’s Derek.”

“Derek?!” Both Naomi and Sam exclaim, shocked. Violet drags Pete and Cooper out, sensing this wasn’t quite any of their business yet. Naomi gives Sam a look, the bald doctor hesitantly leaving the room.

“Derek—as in Derek Shepherd.” Naomi raises her voice. “Derek Shepherd, your ex-husband, wants to work at the practice?! This practice?!” 

“Well he’s going to be moving to LA soon and he needs a job, so—“

“Wait, why is he moving to LA?” Naomi interrupts. “I thought he was with his intern?”

“They broke up.” Addison explains. “And he showed up at my house the other night and told me he still loved me.”

“And you took him back. That’s why you didn’t call me the entire weekend.” Naomi says slowly, connecting the dots. She knew her and their relationship all too well, especially after the past few months whining about their ex-husbands while drinking wine. The confusion on Naomi's face begins to turn into pity and disappointment. “You took him back that easily?”

“You slept with Sam that easily?” Addison shoots back defensively. Pot, meet kettle.

“Addison—” Naomi begins, but Addison cuts her off before she can get any further. 

“No, Nai. I get that what happened between me and Derek is different than you and Sam, but we’re all in the same boat here, we’re all sleeping with our ex-spouses. So can it really be that different?” 

Naomi stares at her for a long moment before deciding to drop the argument. Addison was stubborn, even more so when it came to Derek. That much hadn’t changed since med school. “There’s an extra office we’re using as storage space right now. We could clear it out for Derek to use for consults.”

Addison nods, “Thank you.”

-

“Hey.” Derek greets, appearing at the door of her office. He’d texted her a few hours ago that he’d wanted to meet up for lunch and stop by at the practice.

“Hi.” Addison smiles, putting her files away. “How’d you get past the front desk? Dell hardly let’s anyone through without an appointment.”

“Sam was there, he let me through.” Derek explains. He wraps his arms around her waist as soon as she’s within his reach, pressing a kiss to her lips. He pulls away after a moment to whisper, “I missed you in bed this morning.”

“Mmm, I had to get to work.” Addison responds, painfully aware of the role reversal. Good, Derek deserved a taste of his own medicine from time to time. “Since you’re here, you want to meet the other members of the practice? They’re all probably eating in the break room, it’s a busy day.”

“I’d much rather kiss you instead.” Derek murmurs, capturing her lips once again. Admittedly, she missed this, making out like teenagers in inappropriate places, but this was her place of work and they had to get going if they were going to make lunch. Hesitantly, she pulls away. 

“Later.” She whispers, a promise. She takes his hand, leading him out of her office.

-

Introducing Derek to everyone at the practice went easier than she expected. Violet, Pete, and Cooper weren’t as... hostile as they were with Addison’s arrival (to be fair, at least they’d gotten a heads up about Derek before he showed up) in fact, Derek and Pete seemed like they would get along quite well (to Addison's slight horror and Naomi's amusement.) Now all she needed to do was introduce him to Charlotte. Lucky for her, the blonde shows up at the practice every few days to argue with the doctors over one thing or another.

“Charlotte.” Addison calls, spotting the blonde at the reception. 

“Dr. Montgomery,” She responds formally. Charlotte was always professional, this much Addison appreciated. “What can I do for you?”

“I’ve got a friend—a surgeon actually, moving to LA and I was wondering if you could give him surgical privileges at St. Ambrose.” 

“Well, that depends who this friend is.” Charlotte responds haughtily, never one to pass up the opportunity to give the doctors at Oceanside Wellness a rough time. “I’m not interested in hiring just anybody.”

“You don’t need to hire him, he’ll be working here at the practice. He just needs surgical privileges” Addison clarifies. “Derek Shepherd, he’s a neurosurgeon.”

“Talking about me behind my back, Addie?” Derek’s voice says from behind her. Addison turns around to find her ex-husband walking towards them, a grin appearing on her face. He’s attractive, Charlotte notes, if you were into outdoorsy guys who happen to look like prince charming. (Charlotte wasn’t, and quite frankly she was surprised that Addison was.) He moves to stand beside Addison, giving the blonde a smile and offering a hand. “All good things I hope. Hi, Derek Shepherd.”

“Your ex-husband.” Charlotte says, sounding amused and intrigued as she shakes his hand. Addison raises her eyebrows in surprise, nodding in affirmation. “Don’t look so surprised Montgomery, it doesn’t exactly take much past a Google search to find out you used to be Addison Shepherd.”

“I prefer being called her current boyfriend.” Derek responds cheekily, causing Addison’s cheeks to redden and Charlotte to raise an eyebrow. She had never seen Addison look so... flustered before. Or so giddy either. Not that it was any of her business. What mattered to her was that she had a new neurosurgeon, a talented one at that.

“Congratulations.” Charlotte responds dryly. “Come by the hospital at your earliest convenience, preferably tomorrow morning. I’ll get the papers arranged.”

-

Addison waits for it to explode in her face. It's going well, they're doing great, but she’s waiting for them to fight, for him to realize he’s made a mistake, for him to tell her he still loves Meredith (again), for him to leave. But he doesn’t. Not even after their first fight. 

It’s over something stupid, really. A week after his arrival they’re talking about decorating his office at the practice—or more accurately, Addison’s talking about decorating his office and he couldn’t care less. She’s asking him what color of couch he prefers and he tells her to get whatever she thinks looks best and the indifference sends her back in time. The next thing she knows she’s yelling at him, asking him to care. Again. Except this time, he doesn’t leave. He yells back, admits he doesn’t bother because she always does it better anyway, coordinating every color, every piece of furniture perfectly. The honesty is a blow to her gut and for some reason it makes Addison feel euphoric. He’s fighting back. He cares. It’s a start. It's enough for heart to begin to hope they're going to last this time.

She doesn’t know how they end up cuddled on one of the lounge chairs on her patio, watching the waves come in. The night air is cold, causing Addison to shiver and burrow closer to Derek. All she knows is that she’s grateful, because he’s still here. He didn’t leave. Her heart starts to hope he’s really staying this time.

“I love you, Addie.” He murmurs, pressing a kiss to her hair. Her head is laid on his chest, and she can’t help the slow smile appearing on her lips. How is it that the first time he says those words the third time around it seems the most genuine? “The couch doesn’t matter to me, but if you really want me to choose then I’ll go with the black one.” 

“The black one clashes with your desk.” She can’t help but retort, lifting her head to face him. He raises an eyebrow at her, she’d just proven the point he’d made during their fight. She settles her head back down on his chest, murmuring, “But if that’s what you really want...”

“The color doesn’t matter, Addie.” He insists. “As long as it’s comfortable enough to have sex on—“

“Derek Shepherd!” She interrupts in mock horror, sitting up. “Are you suggesting we’re going to have sex in your office?” 

“It’s not like we haven’t done it before.” He smirks. They certainly have, from the Chief Resident’s office, to their respective Department Head offices (in both New York and Seattle), to the Chief of Surgery’s office that technically wasn’t even theirs to christen, to... well, hours ago in Addison’s own office in the practice.

“Still,” Addison protests, the mischievous glint in her eyes contradicting her words. “It’s unprofessional—“

The rest of what she was going to say is drowned out by his lips capturing hers. 

**Author's Note:**

> The end... or is it? I've been thinking about expanding this. What do you guys think? Leave a review <3


End file.
